


petals and ink

by keiffeine



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Florist Yamaguchi, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, Tattoo Artist and Florist AU, tattoo artist terushima, this is a rewrite of the original, will add more tags later, with a completely different story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28626402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keiffeine/pseuds/keiffeine
Summary: With his flower shop slowly going out of business, Yamaguchi decides to close The Blooming Bud at the end of the month. Still hopeful, Yamaguchi tries to sell discounted flowers before the final closing of his shop, which causes him to meet Terushima, a tattoo artist from across the street looking for a plant to add decoration in his parlor. Upon meeting the tattoo artist, Yamaguchi’s final month in The Blooming Bud becomes more interesting than he expects it to be.
Relationships: Terushima Yuuji/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. marigold

Yamaguchi never thought he had to result to this.

Being a florist had been Yamaguchi’s dream since, basically, forever. Plants had always fascinated him ever since he was a child—the fact that a tiny seed could grow into such a beautiful plant overtime. It was such a gorgeous process, he thought, and sought to create his own flower shop when he was old enough and had the resources to be able to. And he eventually did, after plenty of years had passed, and named his shop “The Blooming Bud.” 

The first couple of years since the opening of Yamaguchi’s shop were actually quite successful. Sales were consistent, he had even been called to make some arrangements for several weddings within that time span, and was overall making a surprisingly good living out of selling flowers. It filled Yamaguchi with a sense of hope; made him feel like he could truly get somewhere with The Blooming Bud, until, in more recent months, his sales began to gradually decline. Day by day, sales would drop, and he found that barely anyone was coming into his small, corner flower shop anymore. The only reason why he wasn’t completely flat-out broke yet was because he had taken up a second job at a nearby grocery store. 

His days in The Blooming Bud had grown terribly tedious and mundane—it lacked the thrill and energy unlike before, when his business was going so well. Yamaguchi hadn’t minded his routine so much in the beginning, but when it started to become repetitive, he easily became bored as he waited and waited and waited some more. Yamaguchi was less energetic than he usually was, but still made an effort to appear cheerful and active on a regular basis, despite barely getting any customers.

This did, needless to say, make him feel greatly upset. Not just because The Blooming Bud wasn’t as successful as it was in the beginning, but the time and effort he put into his dream only to have it result into a failure. The money he earned and the hard work he put into this made him feel ashamed, making him think that he hadn’t pushed himself enough when he was doing the best he could possibly do everyday. He tried staying optimistic when he realized this was happening, so certain that The Blooming Bud would eventually come back from a simple, minor hiccup—but as Yamaguchi let several months continue to pass by, awaiting a change or a miracle, even, he slowly came to face the fact that there wasn’t any hope left for his shop. And seeing there was really no other solution, Yamaguchi decided to close The Blooming Bud for good at the end of the month. It genuinely hurt him to come to that decision, but he was left with no other choice but to close it down. Still trying to keep a positive mind, though, and stuck with an abundance of flowers, Yamaguchi decided to have a closing down sale so that the remaining flowers wouldn’t go to waste—even though he doubted anyone would take interest in it. 

But now, Yamaguchi could only wait for what was to come in his final month of The Blooming Bud. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello and welcome to the first chapter of petals and ink! i’m so so so happy that i’ve finally had the time to rewrite this. i wanted this rewrite to actually have a plot unlike the original, because i look back at it and think “what is even going on here???” 
> 
> so to those of you who’ve read my original and actually liked it, i’m sorry if you were expecting it to be close to its original, however i hope you’re willing to stay and wait as more chapters come out! :)
> 
> (by the way, future chapters won’t be as short as this lol.)


	2. daffodil

Yamaguchi expected another plain day awaiting him as he opened up his shop that morning. Regardless, he attempted to stay optimistic, as his day had only just begun, so who knew what the rest of the day actually had in store for him. Probably not much, he assumed, considering how much activity had been going on in The Blooming Bud over the past few days, which was close to none. 

He had a very particular routine he followed every time he arrived at the shop; check and water each and every flower—every single one—to make sure they’re fresh, otherwise take out the ones that had dried up already, sweep the floor, set up his displays outside, and then sit and patiently wait for a customer to come in (but if anything, it was more like sitting and wishing). Yamaguchi made sure to constantly follow this routine, as it was just the way his mind worked. As the days progressed, though, he gradually fell out of his usual habits, sometimes forgetting to fix his displays out front, which was one of the main and the most important key to getting customers. Half the time, he was getting customers solely because of the bright flowers standing outside of his shop, which reminded him, at that moment, he needed to get onto that. 

The weather outside was lovely; the moderate kind where it wasn’t too hot or too cold. There was a gentle breeze in the air, making the flowers sway as Yamaguchi set them down on the stand. “Today,” Yamaguchi muttered to a bouquet of daisies, as if the flowers were able to comprehend what he was saying, “let’s hope we can get someone to buy you,” he said as he continued placing a few more flowers outside. 

Finishing up with his displays, and adding large yellow signs that said “EVERYTHING MUST GO” and “ENTIRE STORE ON SALE” in large, red letters beside them, Yamaguchi returned back inside the shop and sat down behind the counter, keeping the door open to allow the breeze and the heat inside. Despite the disheartening and lonely atmosphere, the warmth and the shine of the sun really lifted up Yamaguchi’s spirits, even for just a moment, and made him think that everything wasn’t so bad. He just wished he didn’t feel so...pathetic. Even if he claimed that he accepted where things were going, he really, truly wasn’t. Yamaguchi wanted to stop feeding himself false hope, to lose faith completely, to stop wishing that things weren’t turning out the way they were right now, but it was so difficult. How can he possibly accept the fact that he was going to say goodbye to his business in just a span of a few weeks? Yamaguchi could never accept that, no matter how hard he wanted to. 

And what was he going to do at the end of the month? That, he still needed to figure out. Throughout the past few months, Yamaguchi had been working part-time at the local grocery store to earn some money outside of his flower shop, but he certainly wasn’t going to work there forever. What was he going to do? Up until this moment, he didn’t realize how truly terrible this situation was. Going out of business was, obviously, bad, but him still being unprepared as the end of the month neared was even worse. 

Yamaguchi’s train of thought, thankfully, came to a sudden halt as he heard the sound of footsteps on the hardwood floor coming close to the counter. Then came along a sudden voice, saying, “Hi, good morning,” in an awfully cheerful tone that Yamaguchi didn’t know he needed to hear after worrying for his own future. 

He slowly looked up, first noticing heavily tattooed arms. The tattoos on each arm looked completely identical to each other, so detailed that Yamaguchi could only assume how long it took to finish both. An hour and a half, probably, give or take. The black ink swirled to create the intricate bodies of dragons, with a head on each shoulder, exposed because of the muscle tee the guy in front of him was wearing. It was almost as if the dragons were looking at each other. 

Then Yamaguchi finally looked up at his potential customer’s face, taken aback because, wow, Yamaguchi thought, he was cute. 

“Oh, um, good morning,” Yamaguchi greeted him awkwardly, hoping he hadn’t been caught staring so intently at his tattoos, “how can I help you today?” he asked, now eyeing his pierced ears and dyed hair. He was a little surprised—Yamaguchi wasn’t expecting to get any customers today, per usual, especially when it was so early in the morning.

“I saw your signs outside as I was coming to work. I just came looking for a cool plant to put in my tattoo parlor, right across from your flower shop here,” the guy said as he pointed outside the window. Yamaguchi turned to the direction he was pointing in, looking at the tattoo parlor across the street that said _Johzenji Ink_ in large, yellow lettering.

“Are you looking for anything specific?” Yamaguchi asked, turning back to face his customer, feeling the happiest he’d ever felt in days. It felt like forever since he had made a sale. “I have a large selection of flowers, and I have a smaller section of other plants over there,” he explained, pointing to a corner of the shop that had stands with plants like small cacti and succulents. 

“Great! Thanks,” the customer said, and Yamaguchi swore he saw a silver ball on his tongue when he spoke. So he not only had tattoos, dyed hair, and ear piercings, but he also had a piercing on his tongue? _Seriously, how much cuter can this guy get?_ Yamaguchi could only wonder.

He watched as his customer went off to wander around his shop, eyeing the greenery closely with his eyes squinted, trying to find one that took his interest. Meanwhile, Yamaguchi remained seated and waited, occasionally pulling out his phone to make it seem like he was busy texting someone, when in reality he just didn’t want to look awkward and creepy while watching his customer shop for a plant. 

Yamaguchi awkwardly shifted in his seat, finding the silence that swallowed the entire shop really uncomfortable. Except for the occasional “This one looks cool” or a gentle “Hmm” from his tattooed customer. Usually, Yamaguchi had no problem talking to his customers, typically when there was a group, but with just one other person, he suddenly found it difficult to talk. 

“I like your tattoos,” he said to fill in the silence.

“Oh, really? Thanks,” the tattooed customer said as he picked up a small pot of peace lilies.

“Are those the only two you have?” Yamaguchi asked as his customer brought the peace lilies to the counter. “And that’ll be twenty-eight dollars and seventy-eight cents.”

He noticed how his customer’s eyes widened after saying the price, but regardless, he brought out his card and paid for it anyways, which made Yamaguchi smile and mentally pat himself on the back.

“Yeah. I was thinking about getting more, but,” his customer shrugged, glancing at his left arm for a moment before looking back at Yamaguchi, “I think two for now is enough.” he said with a cheeky grin. “Well, anyways, I should get going,” he said with a content sigh, eyeing the peace lilies for a moment again, “thanks for the plant”—he squinted his eyes at the little golden nametag on Yamaguchi’s shoulder—“Yamaguchi. I’ll definitely try my best not to, uh, accidentally kill it.” he laughed.

“Thank you for coming in,” Yamaguchi chuckled, nodding his head and watching his customer make his exit.

He began to open the door, carrying his potted plant with him, but paused for a moment.

“By the way,” he said, turning his head to look over at Yamaguchi, “I’m Terushima.” he winked, then stepped out of The Blooming Bud.


End file.
